Stacy Summary: I recall reporting on the number on food stamps hit 1 in 13, oh about three years ago. It’s now one in 8 Americans. Your thoughts? Anyone seeing the rise in their county? And what’s up with the fact that apparently 100% of the top 100 counties using food stamps voted Republican? Wonder what that means?
From the ailing resorts of the Florida Keys to Alaskan villages along the Bering Sea, the program is now expanding at a pace of about 20,000 people a day.
There are 239 counties in the United States where at least a quarter of the population receives food stamps, according to an analysis of local data collected by The New York Times.
The counties are as big as the Bronx and Philadelphia and as small as Owsley County in Kentucky, a patch of Appalachian distress where half of the 4,600 residents receive food stamps.
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people are working full time and still need food stamps. forgot the guy.s name who says they should have to work for the food stamp program. if you work full time then work for your foodstamps you would not have time to eat, so i guess he has a point.
Ooooh US Economy is recovering
I can be a real sick basket
This is consistent with our observations. The propaganda machine cranks out voters for the Republicans because the Lefties/Democrats are seen as a bunch of tree-hugging gays. That picture doesn’t have alot of traction with suburban and rural white voters who still think they’re living in Ronald Reagan’s 1984.
Here’s one other comment. Food stamps are a version of scrip where the government issues the IOU instead of a private third party.
So, I guess this really comes down to a strange tendency in the US. These politicians are convincing voters that they can provide them handouts of free food and free healthcare. Meanwhile, these politicians are securing a dependent voter base which relies on that politician for food, shelter, water, and healthcare.
I’d say that the situation is dangerous.
Would be nice to see an overlay of food stamps vs obesity? A cheap diet rich in corn syrup and fat results in fat people despite them living in poverty.
@Douglas: http://usfoodpolicy.blogspot.com/2005/01/food-stamps-and-obesity.html ?
@Douglas: or http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/February06/Features/feature4.htm
@ ronron
whomever that guy is, they’re basically advocating slavery..
Food stamp usage in counties and states that voted Repulican:
That means that they will blame the Democratic party (they’re partially right) and that they will fall victim to Sarah Palin and the other demagogue Michelle Bachmann in the next election.
Costco plans to accept food stamps and to be a member you must be employed or own your own business.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010147076_costco28.html
Thanks Harry for the info. We Dutch have food banks but the situation here is far from comparable to the USA.
What always gets to me is the overrepresentation of children in these statistics.
Whoever came up with the slogan “Women and children first” must be an even greater cynic than I am.
That ‘Global Warming is real’ article was easily debunked
http://maxkeiser.com/2009/11/29/predictions-jibber-jabber-sunday/#comment-53508
@ Stacy – A while back, I got into a debate here with someone who was calling Obama and Dems “poverty pimps.” When I went to look at the national poverty data and took a look at it, the majority of the states with poverty rates above the national average voted Republican. Why is a very good question.
I don’t see people using food stamps at the grocery store–maybe because benefits come in around the beginning of the month and I usually don’t do shopping then. But even here in suburbia, I’m sure people use them a lot. Our local food banks are struggling, so there is definitely a need for food.
We Amerikans are useless as can be.
Why, waste energy on discussing our plight.
We know we are doomed. We liked to get fat
from the food that our masters sell us.
Like to get robbed, from the banks that steal from us.
We will forever be in servitude to the oligarchs
that enslave us.
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Long live the U.S. Empire
Brought to you by the
Ministry of Hate
and the New World Order
@mep
I called Acorn poverty pimps, they are a corrupt mafia like group using the poor to enrich themselves, an elite group.
If you look at poverty stricken cities they are controlled and run by Dems and have been for many many years from the civic level up. You can’t just discount this by federal state voting patterns. The far left perpetuates poverty as this is their power, they never solve it.
@WL. you are being childish in thinking it dems or republicans, black or white. all in politics are bought and paid for.absolute power. we’ll you’ve heard the rest.
@ronron
You misunderstand
I know full well the right vs left false paradigm, it = 20 cents
My point is that in response to Mep (who previously defended the left ideals), the lefty lefts have increased poverty in the jurisdictions that they have the most influence, schools and inner cities.. That is in no way an endorsement of the right, they are just as corrupt only in a a slightly different way.
Most falsely assume that the left is the defender of the poor, that is false they are empowered by the poor and encourage control over it. Solving real poverty issues reduces their power.
The righty rights have a different power base.
I get food stamps. It is a long story, but when my husband died, there was no money left, and I was going through a mental breakdown. Caregiver burnout is real. Oh, and we went through “medical bankruptcy.” The US “social safety” net has far too many holes.
@WL. you handle yourself well. politics is an act. sure they play different roles in the movie we live. there are no leftylefts.
@WL. let’s put it this way. it doesn’t matter who you vote for, the government always get in.
@norcalkid. keep you chin up.
WL I think you have cause and effect reversed. Poverty is result of the rights, the lefts are trying to clean up the mess.
@ronron
The politicos are bought and paid for from the top down..
The lefty left dogma gets the elites power from ground up. The righty rights get ground up power using a different dogma. Different dogma same shit.
Of course it is an illusion of choice.
@WL. i don’t know american histoy but acorn probably started as a grassroots genuine concerned citizen thing. they lobby. a senator runs with it and doles out the power to cronies and bingo. this can be said for all programs that were built by well meaning people and hijacked for political pork. it’s all corrupt.
@WL. it all comes down too your mention of one group. i like to paint the whole room.
@zmoore
That is what I thought, but I think it is false, a meme that the Dems have a moral superiority.. Who runs the big cities? Who runs the education system? Public housing projects…FAILURES Despite years of money dumped into them, they have continued to decline. It is plantation politics.
Look at what they have accomplished….they talk a great game but no results.
It is just a great sales pitch.
left right left right left right. you people should join the army.
@ronron
I hear ya
Pied pipers with different tunes leading us down the same path.
I’ve been unemployed for the better part of this year. I was used to taking home about $600/wk. Now, my unemployment takes home $415/wk. This is too much to qualify for food stamps and medicaid.(family of 4). I applied but they rejected me. I don’t know about you, but I’m not rich (or poor) by most measures. If you qualify for food stamps, you are POOR. My unemployment doesn’t even pay all the bills. I don’t pay my credit cards anymore and can’t even find a job shoveling shit. America the Beautiful.
@WL. you had me worry’d for a minute.
P.S. If it is any consolation, my wife and I lost quite a bit of weight this year. Shedding that American forkinmouth disease.
@stacey. you started this.
This isn’t about right or left..democrat or republican. THE DEBACLE that is the US economy can be laid on both parties and ideologues who just don’t GET how teh world or human nature works. You can’t tax and regulate as much as you want in order to accomplish social goals .. it just make bad behavior worse and lots of people sneakier. Meantime BIG govt. in cahoots with BIG financialis or international central banks or control freaks of various stripes go about pillaging and raping productive people and making sure they and future generations live in penury. The US is no longer a producer of much of anything, it is a consumer of goods, having fallen for a kind of twisted version of Adam Smith’s ‘free market’ free trade philosophy. The Chinese ‘get it’ more or less . .they refer to what they believe as a healthy system with the ‘four pillars’ that includes manufacturing, financialis, govt., and service sector. We are not so smart. One must also remember that many BAD policies began under Jimmy Carter and Paul Volcker .. who claimed in 1979 that US workers and citizens would have to learn how to live with lower living standards so the REST of the world could rise. THEN under Clinton, MFN for China and crazy trade policy sent milliions of manufacturing jobs all over the world. Globalism was the NEW GOD of economics. Only someone didn’t tell the American people no other nation gave up as MUCH of its industrial base as the US . except the UK. Both believing they were gonig to be the belly button of international finance and instead became the other apperture of economic ponzi schemes called the US financials, stock market, system. Stacey if you think about it.. Robert Goldman Sachs Rubin made matter worse for the US, as did Greenspan, Volcker, and of course snake head and hypocrits Paulson and Bush .. who is also a globalist believing that markets are uber alles and have a miracle human nature changing aspect. In any event, I pray for the day good people stop blaming one side or the other for BAD policies that come from the fevered brains of the elites, both political parties, bought and paid for by one interest or another. I heard Tracey Burnes on FBN says about CEO Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase .. he and his friends put Obama in office and Obama has NO answers for the economic mess we are in,rather listens in rapt attention to Wall Street gurus who got us into this mess in the first place. Think out of the box .. make no political party saint or sinner..the powers that be like to keep us in that box thinking about ‘us agin them.’ Until we get out of the box .. it will be unethical and bad business as usual.
@stacey – apparently you jumped to a premature conclusion.
East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, #8, was the only one I checked, and as I suspected, it went for Obama 63-35.
http://www.uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2008&fips=22035&f=0&off=0&elect=0
3 of the top 5 counties are almost completely Native American, do they vote GOP? I honestly don’t know.
norcalkid:
I’m sorry for your problems. It is a crime in the US to be poor, or middle class and have major medical problems in the household.
We have help many people in your situation go through bankruptcy. It just irks the hell out of me when I think of the legislation that was put through to make it more difficult for people to go through bankruptcy, based on the false assertion 8 of 10 times that people are just running up debt on “stuff” and then discharge it in bankruptcy. So many of the bankruptcies that we handled were medical bankruptcies and many of them THE HAD INSURANCE!
Great silver video,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pItsaMSmcPQ
Must watch.
anyone caught on yet that The nazi bush told us he was bringing in a fasist nazi regime. And that Obama lies through his teeth and were getting the same procedure done to us.
Who won world war 2. I’ve been told the SS never surrendered. INteresting.
@snoot
The National Interest http://bit.ly/1B8QNL
“did you check out my link on the first page(above) – you have seemed to have alot of interest in the IMF SDR’s over the past few month or two and know alot about them. Its interesting. I know Joseph Stiglitz has been past of the ‘elite’ but he has always been hard on his criticism on the IMF and their policy on developing countries. Now I know having a global currency is one more step towards possible regional governments, but his arguments for a global reserve seem like a way of possible limitations on the military complex and their ever -longing thirst for war expansion and funding. I would just like you hear your opinion on the article or about having a new global reserve currency that doesn’t benefit one country in particular able to fund themselves to no limit. (US).”
The counties that voted republican are probably the satellite slums of the military bases, who are on the brink to begin with.
But remember, yuppie scum voted for obama because he was green and stylish. So the yuppie scum communities still have savings.
Gold’s tanking out the gate in Europe! What’s going on Max? Which universe will we be living in on monday?
@SaulRosenberg – that’s the thing we pointed out when food stamp usage hit 1 in 10; I knew one woman, who was single, who received them in LA, and from what I saw, it takes A LOT of effort to apply for them and all sorts of humiliating rituals to convince them that you are totally impoverished; so now that it is 1 in 8 using food stamps . . . sounds like Third World sort of stuff . . . or at least Second World; but perhaps the income requirements aren’t so stringent on families?
@ Stacey
I wonder if these food stamps work at Totally Organic Farmed Vegitables ?
@ Catalyst
We liked to get fat
from the food that our masters sell us
If you can get a hold of the documantry “Food Inc.”
Dunno if u’ve already seen it
I would just like you hear your opinion on the article or about having a new global reserve currency that doesn’t benefit one country in particular able to fund themselves to no limit. (US).”
@Joe:
I posted my reaction to the article on the other thread. It is a very interesting link: thanks for posting it! I don’t think, in answer to your question, the Stiglitz ideal of a world without US dollar hegemony will make a difference as far as hegemony in principal or practice seeing as the powers behind the US dollar hegemony are still operating in full sail. The IMF has not been disbanded but strengthened. SDR is the unit of account for the IMF bond sales and for the BIS. Both entities serve the same masters who utilized the US as a colonizing force upon the world.
The final goal of the sdr is not reserve currency, IMO, but a way to reliquish the hold of the dollar and all fiat currency upon finance. The assets will be demonitized (demonized). Curious how no mention of the fee for sdr allotment transfer is mentioned except by Soros.
” I will suggest that, for the most part, and for most Americans, it is probably a good thing.”
I wonder if Stiglitz would feel this way if he was about to lose everything he owned and live in abject poverty? Slavery to carbon credit is gain?
If the US goes into hyperinflation, the number on food stamps aka EBT (not to be confused with EFT) — will be 90%.
Someone really needs to found a Hyperinflation political party — I believe that a governmental policy of 50 years of hyperinflation and 25 annihilated fiat currencies is beyond hyperperfect.
Without 50 years of hyperinflation to totally erase anything of value in the US economy … the current top down direct rule will totally collapse.
In order to distract the US from these numbers, why not get :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monica_Lewinski
to shag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Woods
and have the vid traded via BitTorrent by the next fortnight.
I find is laughable that the Canadians and Europeans feel that the US is exclusive to suffering brought about by the fiat currency demise.
HAHAHAHAHA
But the Canadians can rely on moose and maple syrup as always. They won’t be able to heat their homes under the Copenhagen policy, but they can wear animal skins!
I have no idea what are the requirements in other states, but here is what the rules are for California:
http://www.dss.cahwnet.gov/foodstamps/PG841.htm
This is the important portion: “Resource limits are $2,000 for all households except those that have a member who has a disability or who is 60 years of age or older.” “# Liquid Resources – Includes all funds readily available to the household such as cash on hand, money in checking or savings accounts, savings certificates, trust deeds, notes receivable, stocks, or bonds, non-recurring lump sum payments (which includes retroactive payments, funds held in an individual retirement accounts (IRA) and funds held in accessible Keogh plans.”
=============
Canada has been totally left out of the US news stories with respect to the same problem — this should be a headline …
=============
Poor going hungry in recession
Addressing Canada’s hunger crisis
http://www.themanitoban.com/articles/23472
This week, Food Banks Canada, the association of food banks across Canada, released its annual survey on food bank use in Canada. Hunger Count 2009 reveals, not surprisingly, that it is the poor that have borne the brunt of the economic crisis.
There are now nearly 800,000 people a month in Canada who are using the food bank. This is one of the world’s wealthiest nations that tends to pride itself in the vitality of our social structures, yet it has so many people needing emergency food aid.
http://foodbankscanada.ca/documents/HungerCount2009NOV16.pdf
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This is the important portion: “Resource limits are $2,000 for all households except those that have a member who has a disability or who is 60 years of age or older.” “# Liquid Resources – Includes all funds readily available to the household such as cash on hand, money in checking or savings accounts, savings certificates, trust deeds, notes receivable, stocks, or bonds, non-recurring lump sum payments (which includes retroactive payments, funds held in an individual retirement accounts (IRA) and funds held in accessible Keogh plans.”
=============
The 2000 USD limitation dates from the 1970s, and has never been updated. If it had ever been corrected for inflation it should be 10000 USD — but the poor in the US do not even exist so this fix was never made.
Potentially, a 15000 USD limit would not be out of place for many households considering the direct and indirect implications of the vastly increased US health care costs since then.
In the US, if you don’t have 700,000 USD in the bank — you effectively have zero savings at all (as each American has 700 k of cumulative debt on their head) … and 300 k USD can allow one to migrate to Australia or NZ and buy a house when there.